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Anatomy Digestive
Anatomy Digestive
Anatomy Digestive
DIGESTIVE SYSTEM
By Jacquie Jacob and Tony Pescatore
An understanding of the avian digestive system is essential to developing a feeding
program for your poultry flock. A knowledge of chicken anatomy, and what the parts
normally look like, will also help you to recognize when something is wrong and take
the necessary actions to correct the problem.
Figure 1. Model showing the internal organs of the female chicken
The digestive tract of any animal, including chickens, is important in converting the
food they eat into the nutrients their body needs for maintenance, growth, and production (such as eggs). Once food is eaten, it must be broken down into its basic components. This is done through both mechanical and chemical means.
Mechanical action typically involves chewing, but since birds dont have teeth
other mechanical methods are used and will be discussed later in this publication.
Chemical action includes the release of digestive enzymes and fluids from the
stomach, pancreas and liver.
Once the nutrients have been released from food during digestion, they can be absorbed and distributed throughout the animals body.
The digestive tract is also referred to as the gastro-intestinal or GI tract. Which ever
term is used, in chickens it begins at the mouth and ends at the cloaca and has several important organs in between (see the Figure 2 below).
Beak / Mouth: Chickens, as with most birds, obtain feed with the use of their beak.
Food picked up by the beak enters the mouth. As previously mentioned, chickens do
not have teeth so they are not able to chew their food. The mouth does contain glands
which secrete saliva which wets the feed to make it easier to swallow. The saliva also
contains some enzymes which start the digestion of the food eaten. The chickens
tongue is then used to push the feed to the back of the mouth so that it can be swallowed.
Did you know: Chickens swallow water differently than
we do. While they use their tongue to push food to the
back of the throat this is not very effective when swallowing water. We close our mouths and let our throats do the
swallowing. Chickens, however open and close their
mouths rapidly while tilting their heads up, since they
need gravity to do move the water down their throats.
Source: USDA/ARS
Esophagus: The esophagus is a flexible tube that connects the mouth with the rest of
the digestive tract. It carries food from the mouth to the crop and from the crop to the
proventriculus.
Crop: The crop is an out-pocketing of the esophagus and is located just outside the
body cavity in the neck region (see Figure 3 below). Any swallowed feed and water is
stored in the crop until it is time to move on to the rest of the digestive tract. When the
crop is empty, or nearly empty, it sends hunger signals to the brain so that the chicken
will eat more.
Figure 3. Photograph showing the location of the crop in
a chicken. The crop is located just outside the body cavity in the neck region.
Although the mouth excretes the digestive enzyme amylase, very little, digestion actually takes place in the crop it is simply a temporary storage pouch. The crop evolved
for birds that are typically hunted by other animals but which need to move to the open
to find feed. These birds are able to consume relatively large amounts of food quickly
and then move to a more secure location to digest the food they consumed.
Occasionally the crop becomes impacted or backed up (crop impaction, also referred to as crop binding or pendulous crop). This may occur when chickens go a
long time without feed. This will cause the chickens to eat too much too fast when the
feed becomes available again. A crop may also become impacted in a chicken that is
free-ranged on a pasture of tough, fibrous vegetation. Crop impaction can also result
when the chickens eat a long piece of string. With a crop impaction, even if a chicken
continues to eat, the feed can not get past the impacted crop. The swollen crop may
also cut off the windpipe, suffocating the chicken.
Proventriculus: The esophagus continues past the crop to connect the crop to the
proventriculus. The proventriculus (also known as the true stomach) is the glandular
stomach where digestion begins. As with human stomachs, hydrochloric acid and digestive enzymes (e.g., pepsin) are added to the feed here and digestion begins. At this
point, however, the food has not yet been ground up. The term proventriculus is used
since it comes before the ventriculus or gizzard, with pro being a Latin terming meaning before.
Figure 4. Photographs of the front and back views of the proventriculus and gizzard
Gizzard
Gizzard
Proventriculus
Proventriculus
Chickens fed only commercially prepared feed do not need grit. If, however, whole
grains are fed, it is necessary to provide small pebbles, typically given as grit. Grit is a
commercial product made up of small stones. It should not be confused with limestone
or oyster shell which are given to laying hens as a source of calcium for their shells.
Warning: Do NOT give chicks oyster shell or limestone. These are NOT
grit. Oyster shell and/or limestone are often given to laying hens to provide the extra calcium they need for egg shell formation. This extra calcium, however, will cause bone development problems in chicks. The
kidneys can be damaged as well.
Chickens kept on pasture will also require supplementation with grit, though many of
them may consume enough pebbles when they forage.
Gizzards have a thick lining which protects their muscles (see Figures 5 and 6 below).
When chickens are slaughtered, the gizzards are often saved, the lining removed, and
the gizzard consumed by the family or sold as a food item. While many people use
chicken gizzards in home-made pet food (typically dogs and cats) they can also be a
human food item, eaten alone or as part of a recipe.
Figure 5. Photograph of the inside of
the proventriculus and gizzard (Note:
the blue straw indicates the exit from
the gizzard to the small intestine.
When a chicken eats a small, sharp object such as a tack or staple, the object is likely
to get stuck in the gizzard. Because of the strong grinding motion of the gizzards muscles, these sharp objects may eventually put a whole in the gizzard wall. Chickens with
damaged gizzards will grow thin and eventually die a very good reason to keep your
poultry houses free of nails, glass shards, bits of wire and the like.
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Small intestine: The small intestine is made up of the duodenum (also referred to as
the duodenal loop) and the lower small intestine. The duodenum receives digestive
enzymes and bicarbonate (to counter the hydrochloric acid from the proventriculus)
from the pancreas and bile from the liver via the gall bladder. The digestive enzymes
produced by the pancreas are primarily involved in protein digestion. Bile is a detergent that is important in the digestion of lipids and absorption of fat-soluble vitamins
(vitamins A, D, E and K). The remainder of the digestion occurs in the duodenum and
the released nutrients are absorbed mainly in the lower small intestine. The lower
small intestine is composed of two parts, the jejunum and ileum. The Merkels Diverticulum marks the end of the jejunum and the start of the ileum.
Jejunum
Figure 7. Photograph showing the
positioning of the Merkels Diverticulum between the jejunum and
ileum portions of the small intestinal tract.
Merkels
Diverticulum
Ileum
The pancreas plays important roles in both the digestive and hormonal
systems. It secretes hormones into the blood system that are important in
the regulation of blood sugar.
In the developing embryo the yolk sac supplies the nutrients needed for it to develop
and grow. Right before hatch, the yolk sac is taken into the navel cavity of the embryo.
The residual tiny sac is the Merkels Diverticulum (see Figure 7 above).
The material remaining in the yolk immediately after hatch is able to supply the feed
and water needs of the newly hatched chicken. This is why it is possible to ship chicks
long distances without adverse affects, as is done when chicks are purchased online
and shipped via the postal service.
Omphalitis is a condition characterized by infected yolk sacs, often accompanied by
unhealed navels in recently hatched chicks. It is infectious but not contagious. It is often associated with excessive humidity and marked contamination of the hatching
eggs or incubator. The affected chicks usually appear normal until a few hours before
death. Depression, drooping of the head, and huddling near the heat source usually
are the only signs. The navel may be inflamed and fail to close, producing a wet spot
on the abdomen; a scab may be present.
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Ceca (plural form; singular = cecum): The ceca are two blind pouches located where
the small and large intestines join. Some of the water remaining in the fecal material is
reabsorbed here. Another important function of the ceca is the fermentation of any remaining coarse materials. In doing so they produce several fatty acids as well as the
eight B vitamins (Thiamine, riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, pyridoxine, biotin, folic
acid and vitamin B12). Because the ceca are located so close to the end of the digestive tract, however, very little of the produced nutrients are absorbed and available to
the animal.
The ceca empty their contents two or three times a day, producing pasty droppings
that often smell worse than regular droppings. Cecal droppings typically have a mustard to dark brown in color. The number of times cecal droppings are pooped, as
well as their color and texture, tell you that the chickens digestive tract is functionally
normally.
Large intestine (also known as the colon): Despite the name, the large intestine is
actually shorter than the small intestine. The large intestine is where the last of the water re-absorption occurs.
Cloaca: In the cloaca there is a mixing of the digestive wastes together with wastes
from the urinary system (urates). Fecal material is usually voided as digestive waste
with white uric acid crystals on the outer surface (i.e., chickens do not urinate/pee).
The reproductive tract also exits through this area (e.g., eggs or sperm).
Figure 8. A photograph of normal chicken fecal
material show the dark fecal material with a
coating of white uric acid crystals
The color and texture of chicken fecal material can indicate the health status of the
chickens digestive tract. The white pasty material that commonly coats chicken fecal
material is uric acid, the avian form of urine, and is normal (see Figure 8 below).
Some of the possible abnormal color and texture changes that can occur, together with
possible causes, are shown below. These are just possible causesany sick birds
should be diagnosed by a veterinarian.
Appearance of Feces
Droppings with blood = coccidiosis
Greenish droppings = late stages of worms (or has eaten a lot of green
vegetables if free-ranged)
White, milky runny droppings = worms, coccidiosis, Gumboro disease
(Infectious Bursal Disease)
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